Archive for the 'Palaeontology' Category

Most people prefer a good Tyrannosaur to a lowly duck. It’s a matter of choice of course, but when thinking about dinosaurs you probably have visions of ruthless predators with teeth the size of meat cleavers, or titanic herbivores bigger than small buildings, whereas ducks tend to float around in ponds inquiring after handfuls of bread.

However palaeontologists and biologists have revealed evidence that the humble duck may have triumphed over the mighty dinosaurs.

This is an article I’ve written and just submitted for a science writing prize in the UK, the Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize. If you’re interested in entering, unfortunately the deadline was today, but there’s always next year, details are found through the link just above. The article is about why, and roughly when, sex was invented. At least on Earth…

OK, this post is going to be an unabashed advertisement for the Open University. I don’t work for them, I’m not doing this for any personal gain, I’m doing it because I’m a student at the OU (I’m working towards a degree in Geosciences), I love it, and I’d like more people to know about it.

If you’ve ever wanted to earn a degree, or just want to study a subject you found interesting, but feel that you can’t attend a traditional university for some reason, be it not enough time or money, or you haven’t got great qualifications from school, or you’re getting on-a-bit and you can’t face all those over-excited teenagers, then the OU may have something for you.

In three previous posts (part 1, part 2 & part 3) I summarized the key highlights of the history of life on Earth, beginning with the Earth’s creation (hint, not by God), and ending with humans’ inventing the radio. I described the most important events, but I didn’t spend any time looking at their implications, particularly what this means for the search for alien life.

What can the history of life on Earth can tell us life on other planets?

In parts 1 and 2 I looked at the key events in the history of life, from the birth of the Earth up to the evolution of the dinosaurs.

In part three I’ll continue from the dinosaurs right up to the appearance of humanity, and its finest work, Ellen Page.

As with the previous posts I’ll give approximate times for each event millions of years and I’ll use the label Ma for millions (mega-annum). I’ll also show the time in terms of a 24-hour clock. The last event I looked at was 225 million years ago, or 22:49 on the 24-hour clock. The next event is…